Government spokesmen in the House of Commons today turned down a proposal to seek increased refugee immigration into the Dominions and neutral countries, and stated that the Guiana settlement plan was only temporarily halted.

Foreign Undersecretary Richard A. Butler rejected a proposal of Miss Eleanor Rathbone, Independent, that the Government approach the United States and other neutral countries, as well as the Dominions, asking them to increase temporarily their quotas for refugee immigration in view of the suffering and danger imposed on victims of Nazi persecution by the unwillingness of Britain and France to receive them.

Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald, replying to a demand that abandonment of the British Guiana scheme be only temporary because subsequent remigration was a condition of entry to Britain, declared he was hopeful that the scheme would be carried out in the future, but refugee organizations were unable to proceed now because they were no longer in a financial position to do so.